Curled-hair fabric



E. C. FAHR.

CURLED HAIR FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. l1, 191s.

1,334;744. Patented Ma1-.1920.

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EDWARD C. FARB, OF FLINT, MICHIGAN.

GURLED-HAIR FABRIC.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 23, 1920.

Application led March 11, 1918. 4Serial No. 221,658.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it4 known that I, EDWARD C. FARE, a citizen of theUnited States, andresident of Flint, Genesee county, State of Michigan, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Curled-Hair Fabric, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The invention relates to improvements in curled hair fabric as describedin the present specification and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings that form part thereof.

The invention consists essentially in the novel arrangement of curledhair upon a textile material whereby comparatively short hair may beutilized to provide an efiicient filling for upholstering purposes; thehair will be retained in an even layer with consistent fullness; a batwill be formed to facilitate shipping, handling and the insertion of thesame in upholstery and waste prevented.

The invention further consists in arranging the hair and textile backingin strips with an extending portion of textilematerial wherebyupholstery formed of pipings may be readily and evenly filled and thestrip readily guided into proper posltion 1n the pipings.

The invention further consists in the particular arrangement of`interlaced hairs through the textile materia-l whereby the bat issecurely formed and the hair effectively united to the textilereinforcing back.

These and other objects will more clearly appear from the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, whichform a part of this specification and in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of the curled hair fabric.

i Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional elevation of one end of a`length offabric showing the selvage portion turned under.

Fig 3 is an enlarged longitudinal elevation of a portion of a length offabric having the selvage end extended and ready for use.

Fig. 4: is a sectional view of the curled hair fabric further enlargedandpartially diagrammatic, showing the manner of s ecuring'the curledhair to the textile materlal.

' Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing the manner of placing the fabricin a metal sheath.

of a length .fur textile materials, and t- Flg. 6 is a longitudinalsectional view of the fabric in a sheath showing the selvage fastenlngmeans.

Fig. 7 is a sectional perspective view of a. cushlon section showing thestrips of fabric arranged in pipings.

Like numerals of reference indicate similar parts throughout the views.

10 1s a relatively long and narrow strip of textile material, the weaveof which is comparatively 'coarse and substantially that of burlap, andor border end one side thereof the bat vof curled hair 12.

It must be understood that the curled hair 12, if desired, may extend inan un- 'broken surface over the entire surface of the burlap, thoughmany advantages, as hereinafter. fully described, will be obtained byarranging the same in the strip having the selvage end 11, as shown.

It 1s well understood in the art that a bat of curled hair may be madeby spreading the desired thickness of curled halr and then interlacingor stitching the same together as in quilt form, or by hooked needles tobe passed through the layer of hair with a crocheting effect and thusinterlace certain of the hairs together suiii'ciently to unite the samefor the purpose of feeding a machine. It is also known lin the art totuft wool, hair or other material through a textile fal'bric, as in thewell known domestic art of making rag carpets; also lin the manufactureof certain ru and imitation e present invention, in its more specificform, takes advantage of the action of the hooked needles in interlacingthe individual hairs of a bat of curled hair together to furtherinterlace the same to a. textile material, that is, pracf ticallycrochet the hair into the textile material, whereby a very excellentfabric is fabricated for upholstery purposes having the desiredthickness of curled hair with a backing of textile materialsubstantially integral therewith, whereby the /completed fabric may bereadily handled for transortation, or use in filling cushion pipings.

As particularly shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings, the fabric ispreferably manufactured in a continuous length by placing a layer ofcurled hair upon a length of textile material and having a suitablemachine opcrate hooked needles 13, similar to a crochet hook, wherebythey are inserted through the preferably having the selvagel 11, andhaving secured to textile material into the center of the curled hair,and upon withdrawal, will thread the several individual hairs 14gathered by the hook of the needle through the bat of curled hair as theneedle is withdrawn., and onwardly over the textile material to apredetermined extent, so that when the needle is next inserted throughthe fabric and Withdrawn the hair will be interlaced or crocheted asshown at 15. The strips of fabric as shown in Fi g. 1 are formed bycutting the continuous length of fabric across the Width thereof as itcomes from the machine. The curled hair is closely interwoven with thetextile material and substantially forms a part thereof, theinterweaving being so intimate that the entire fabric may be handled'for shipment and upholstery-fitting or other purposes and the equaldistribution of curled hair will be maintained even when arranged insections or piping strips as shown.

When the continuous length of fabric material with the curled hair onthe top is being interwoven, the selvage for the tab 11 of the textilematerial may be turned under, as shown in Fig. 2, and afterward the tab11 of each strip is pulled out as shown in Fig.

3, but it must be here explained that the turning under of the selvageborder part is only to accommodate and facilitate the operation of themachine which works the needles for interlacing the curled air andtextile material, as hereinbefore described, and it is preferable tohave the machine arranged so that the fabric is manufactured With theselvage or tab part extending beyond the curled hair facing as shown inFig. 3.

The tab end 11 of each strip is used for securing the strips of fabricin a metal sheath as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the sheath comprising anunder trough-shaped member 16 having a handle 17 formed at one end andan orifice or cross-slot 18 through the other end. The strip of fabricis laid in the trough with the tab 11 extending over the cross-slot/ 18and a Cover plate 19 having a handle 2O and the tongue 21 is placed onthe strip, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, to complete the sheath with thetongue 21 extending into the cross-slot 18, whereby the tab 11 has beenlooped into the cross-slot and is clamped therein by the tongue end ofthe sheath cover.

The sheath with the strip of fabric clamped therein as described isinserted Ain a piping of a cushion cover, as shown in Fig. 7 and firstthe cover and then the trough portion of the sheath are withdrawn fromthe piping, leaving the fabric material properly placed in the piping tocomplete the cushion filling.

It will be readily understood that much time will be saved over theordinary method of fabricating cushions by stitching the requiredpipings into form and then filling them by stuffing with curled hairfrom bulk, and further that a much more even distribution of thestuffing or filling will result, giving a maximum filling of the cushionwith a minimum amount of curled hair. The s acing of the bats orsections of curled air throughout the length of the textile materialwill also provide effectual means of ventilating the entire fabric, andmore especially when the piping or upholstery covering is drawn downbetween the sections of curled hair as shown in Fig. 7

The fabric as described also permits the use of short hair whichordinarily would be of little practical use as it would quickly shiftand become` uneven and matted, but providing a small quantity of longhair or other material such as sisal is used, the crocheting operationwill interlace the long hairs or fibers with the short ones and to thetextile backing in such a manner that a very satisfactory cushionfilling is obtained.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many modificationsand changes may be made without departing from the scope of theinvention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

1. An article of manufacture comprising a relatively long and narrowstrip of textile fabric and a layer of curled hair of uniform thicknesssecured thereto, the strip of fabric projecting beyond the layer of hairat one end to provide a. tab, for the purpose set forth.

2. An article of manufacture comprising a relativel)7 long and narrowstrip of textile fabric and a layer of curled hair uniformly distributedthereon, the hair being interlocked with the fabric, and the fabricprojecting beyond the hair at one end to form a ta'b, for the purposeset forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

EDWARD C. FARR.

